US-Philippines Wilson Dollar - Silver Medal

US-Philippines Wilson Dollar (1920)
Silver Medal

photo courtesy of peggasuss of ebay

Obverse: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson "President of the United States
Reverse: Justice kneeling and watching over a nude youth who is pouring planchets (coin blanks) into a cooling press "Commemorate the opening of the mint", "Manila P.I. 1920"

Mintage: 2,200 pieces (another 3,700 for a bronze version)

This official silver medal was struck at the Manila Mint in July 1920 to commemorate it's opening. The dies were executed by George Morgan.


The Manila Mint

The Manila Mint was a branch of the United States Mint, located in Manila, now the capital city of the Philippines. Since that country became a United States possession after the Spanish-American War, the United States began to produce coinage for the Philippines in 1903 at its San Francisco and Philadelphia mints.

In 1920, the Manila Mint was opened, and was the first (and to date only) U.S. branch mint located outside the Continental United States. It produced coins until 1922 and then again from 1925 to 1941, when the Japanese Empire invaded the Philippines during World War II. The mint was operated under Japanese auspices during the occupation. No U.S. coins were produced at Manila after 1941 due to the occupation and to Philippine independence in 1946, although Philippine coinage did take place at the other U.S. mints in 1944 and 1945. The building housing the mint was destroyed during the retaking of the city in 1944.